[Chapter 22 - Status Revealed]

  A prosperous mining village. That’s what it should have been.

  Valen had relayed this to me as we travelled, a conversation we had sustained while we marched the long road west.

  “Atreia took Northgaard with the goal of extracting silversong from across the Wall,” he had said. “Silvermine was one of the main exporters they set up, and through it came the metal from which Atreian arms and armour was made. This was forged for the elite, but also for the rank-and-file like ourselves once it had been extensively alloyed with much less… valuable… materials. You can see why the tribune sent us even when the frontier is already so thinly stretched.”

  That made sense to me, but what greeted us was not the busy hubbub of miners and villagers as we had been led to believe. Smoldering timber and cobblestone foundations were instead all that stood in the hillscape in front of us, mere piles of rock and wood accompanied by the various smashed carts which sprawled across the main roads. The occasional plume of black smoke could still be seen emanating out from within the ruins, yet my attention was drawn elsewhere. Corpses intermingled the debris which remained, my widened eyes quickly coming across the blackened silhouettes of their hands which reached out with faces contorted in agony. No small number of them had been mounted upon spikes, and the scene brought out a retch from within me that was worsened by the smell hanging over the air.

  I had only come to this world for no more than a month, and yet this had been the second time that I had seen such a clear disregard for life. Even my experience as a mercenary had not witnessed such wanton cruelty, no matter how morally questionable the people I worked with had been. Was this the reality that the people in Northgaard faced? It was nothing like the world my brother had experienced when he lived in the capital away from the frontier, all those years ago.

  Marcus and Ante answered that for me, the latter gagging at the sight while the former ran towards the bushes to vomit.

  Although I felt pity for their discomfort, I could not deny that their reactions brought me some relief; some validation of my own feelings, reassuring me that this scene was not the norm.

  In any case, Felix’s words encompassed my reaction perfectly.

  “What the fuck happened here?”

  He picked his way forwards, his head moving from side to side as he scanned the ruins before him.

  Bj?rn answered, his bared teeth indicating his disgust. “Can’t have been goblins, they wouldn’t have killed the townsfolk. They could have been free labour, or otherwise entertainment at the very least.”

  “We’ll spread out then.” Felix muttered. His sword was kept sheathed, but he gripped its handle firmly in his hand as he slung his pack down to the side. “Find any survivors. Villagers or goblins. Keep them alive, we need to know what happened.”

  “But stay quiet.” Our heads turned to see Ullr kneeling on the floor, staring at the ash which he rubbed between his fingers. “This is no more than a day old, they may still be here.’

  “How do you know that?” Ante whispered back, eyes darting nervously around.

  Ullr smiled at his response. “You pick things up when you’ve been in the legion for as long as I have, child.”

  “Groups of two then.” Felix said curtly. “Ullr with me. Bj?rn, go with Sora that way,” he pointed to our right, “and Ante and Valen you guys stay together. Aela with Roxas to the south,” his hand moved left, “and Marcus and Reyna, check near the mines with us. Keep yourselves hidden. If you run into anyone, come back and report to us first.”

  We said nothing, nodding our acknowledgement to him.

  We placed our bags down by his, Valen and Ante gathering them to hide them further afield. My gun however remained by my side, hidden in that nondescript pouch that I kept slung over my shoulder. It provided a source of comfort to me as I began picking my way through the remnants of the village, and I searched for any clue that might indicate as to why the village had been razed.

  If my attributes were anything to go by, my proficiency in finding things was not particularly awful. It was etched there in the gold plate, embodied in a numerical value of 24 beside the [Investigation] category that had carved itself upon my signaculum. How this had presented itself was fascinating.

  I had taken a look at my status plate during the brief rest we had allowed ourselves along our journey to Silvermine. Initially it had shown only my main stats, the numbers laid neatly out in two columns beneath the name I had given the Atreian recruiter.

  [Sora Ishmaea]

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Rank: Iron, Class II

  Strength XXVI [26]

  Dexterity XXIX [29]

  Intelligence XXI [21]

  Focus XXVIII [28]

  Vitality XXII [32]

  I had been taken aback by my low [Intelligence] score, an indignation I had felt which Wrath had guffawed at. Fortunately that did not last, with Aela soon explaining to me afterwards what the marks entailed.

  “Intelligence?” she had said, quickly smirking before she responded. “I know it's a bit confusing but don't worry about it too much. Despite what it suggests, it actually focuses more on arcane understanding rather than measuring how intelligent you actually are. I know many people with high intelligence levels, and their understanding of the natural world might be abundant but most lack the basic common sense bestowed upon the rest of us.”

  That gave me some reassurance at least. I had then turned my attention back to the slate, and as soon as I thought about it the letters changed to match the category that I conjured within my mind. The words blurred and merged, forming new attributes which replaced the original categories engraved there.

  Next to [Investigation], two neat XX’s rendered themselves onto the gold plate, along with an IV which accompanied it.

  [Level 24]

  To see my ability manifested into a numerically-assigned metric was a strange feeling, but it also brought with it a sense of satisfaction every time a number of any category grew higher from my training. A small ring sounded out from the plate with each advancement, bringing with it a rush of dopamine as soon as I heard it.

  Even with this high a level, I found nothing in the first building that we entered. The same went for the second as well, its smoldering remains yielding little more than the same mass of ash and carbon that surrounded us for metres around. It was only when we came to the third however, that that could no longer be said.

  Our path had led us to a group of ruins clustered by themselves at the side. The wooden frames stood atop a small hill a short distance away from the village, with the third building being the larger of the three. I made my way through what had been its main entrance, Bj?rn circling around to survey its perimeter in turn.

  Not all of the building had collapsed from the fire, and I gazed at the walls which were still standing as I stepped deeper within. At the uppermost sections of the burnt wood, I could just about make out the ornate carvings lining them. It seemed to be a frieze of some sort, one which depicted a scene of war.

  On one end stood people. Humans and dwarves, elves and lizardmen, cat-folk, norn, orcs and many other species all etched into wood, distinguished by their prominent features. On the other, clashing into their shield walls with mouths open in silent screams, was an ensemble of what looked like giant bugs.

  Scorpions and monsters with carapace-like features, all carved into sizes larger than those of the humans, tearing into the people who fought back with desperation. Many of the alliance lay dying with pools of blood chiselled beside them, while at their very centre stood a group of people much larger than any of the others. In place of heads they bore the faces of animals, and in the middle I could see one bearing the semblance of a crocodile.

  “The Void War.” Bj?rn had come back. He stood beside me, admiring the relief in the same way I did as he spoke in a calm but somber manner. “This must have been the village temple. It was our first encounter with them. The start of a dark age for Arithea.”

  “Them?”

  He turned to face me, an unnerving glint present in his eyes.

  “The monsters beyond the Wall. They came here from the Void.” Bj?rn moved his head back towards the carvings. “I’m surprised this survived. Of all things that were burnt, this still remained.”

  I walked closer, peering to get a better look at the depictions opposite, only to feel my foot strike the side of some unknown edge. Looking down, I saw a rim of metal, lining the sides of what seemed to be a wooden ledge that jutted out unevenly from the ground.

  Bj?rn and I glanced at each other before we got to work, carefully heaving away the rubble burying it while trying our best to make as little noise as possible. Soon it was revealed, a wooden trap door whose edges had been warped slightly outwards, lying beneath the burnt remains of the carpet which had hidden it.

  In the near end, a metal clasp had been embedded in the middle. We quickly grabbed our hands around it and pulled. It was not without great effort that the door finally raised, its hinges creaking as we heaved it ajar. Beneath the huge chunk of wood was now revealed before us a line of stone steps, and they trekked their way downwards in a gradual descent into the dark.